Jeffries Maintains Marginal Lead over Buster in Supervisor Race

RIVERSIDE – Outgoing Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries had 137 votes shaved from his lead over Riverside County Supervisor Bob Buster today in the race to represent the county’s First District, but still held a 670-vote advantage.

The Registrar of Votes’ website noted that 49,500 vote-by-mail ballots, 60,000 provisional ballots and 13,500 damaged ballots had yet to be processed countywide.

Another updated vote tabulation was scheduled to be released at 6 p.m. Saturday.

This was the first time Buster had been forced into a runoff election since his inaugural campaign in 1992.

Campaign filings showed both Buster and Jeffries spent six-figure amounts on their races, though Buster raised 60 percent more in political contributions.

Buster’s camp underscored a record of trying to improve the local economy and save the county money through public employee pension reform and the acquisition of federal grants for transportation projects that employee local workers.

Jeffries criticized Buster’s six-figure pension and vowed that if elected, he would work to convert all the supervisors’ retirement plans to self- funded 401(k)s. The property management firm owner also blasted the incumbent for supporting some aspects of Gov. Jerry Brown’s 2011 ”realignment” initiative that resulted in many state responsibilities being shifted onto counties — without assurances for long-term funding.

b>Early Returns Show County Supervisor Topped by Challenger

RIVERSIDE – Riverside County Supervisor Bob Buster, a nearly 20- year incumbent representing the First District, appears to have been unseated by termed-out Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries, who pulled ahead today during the tabulation of election returns.

”I am cautiously optimistic,” Jeffries said. ”The registrar of voters will be releasing a final update of the ballot count on Thursday. That’ll be a more appropriate time to gauge how this thing is going to conclude.”

Buster could not immediately be reached for comment.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Jeffries had a nearly 1,000- vote lead on Buster — 43,308 to 42,354. However, the Registrar of Voters’ Office noted on its website that around 105,000 vote-by-mail ballots, 60,000 provisional ballots and 18,000 damaged ballots had yet to be tabulated countywide.

Jeffries credited his phalanx of 50 volunteers, who waged an aggressive door-to-door get-out-the-vote drive in the final two weeks of the campaign, with helping put him over the top.

”We never stopped,” the Lake Elsinore Republican said. ”We just kept going all week and on the weekends.”

Buster held a narrow lead over Jeffries throughout the night, but the numbers turned in the challenger’s favor around 8 a.m.

”The biggest frustration we heard from voters in the First District was their phone calls to my opponent’s office weren’t getting returned and their issues weren’t being addressed,” Jeffries said.

He said he and friends planned to spend today and tomorrow taking down campaign signs from public rights of way.

”It’s what I prefer to do,” Jeffries said. ”There’s no requirement. I just don’t like leaving those signs out there.”

This was the first time Buster had been forced into a runoff election since his inaugural campaign in 1992. The Harvard-educated citrus farmer failed to win more than 50 percent of the vote in the June primary, when Jeffries and retired California Highway Patrol Lt. Mike Soubirous combined to receive enough votes to top the incumbent, with Jeffries edging out Soubirous by a small margin to become the challenger in the general election.

Campaign filings showed both Buster and Jeffries spent six-figure amounts on their races, though Buster raised 60 percent more in political contributions.

Some of the funds were spent on a flurry of anti-Jeffries mailers distributed in the last two weeks. Buster accused his opponent of being cozy with public employee unions and voting in favor of dozens of ”job killer” bills.

The Jeffries camp released answers to virtually all of the accusations, detailing what the three-term state lawmaker characterized as his record of fiscal prudence.

Jeffries received endorsements from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and the California Small Business Administration.

Buster’s website underscored a record of trying to improve the local economy and save money by backing public employee pension reform, vigorously supporting the UC Riverside School of Medicine and working on the transportation commission to ”push through … many much needed transportation projects to increase lanes, widen bridges and improve interchanges throughout Riverside County.”

Jeffries criticized Buster’s six-figure pension and vowed that if elected, he would work to convert all the supervisors’ retirement plans to self- funded 401(k)s. The property management firm owner also blasted the incumbent for supporting some aspects of Gov. Jerry Brown’s 2011 ”realignment” initiative that resulted in many state responsibilities being shifted onto counties — without assurances for long-term funding.

RIVERSIDE – Riverside County Supervisor Bob Buster, a nearly 20- year incumbent, held a narrow lead today in his re-election bid in the First District.

With about 52 percent of precincts reporting, Buster had roughly 50.4 percent of the vote, compared to about 49.6 percent for termed-out Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries, R-Lake Elsinore. It was the first time Buster has been forced to a runoff election since his inaugural campaign in 1992.

Buster, a Riverside-area citrus farmer, failed to win more than 50 percent of the vote in the June primary, when Jeffries and retired California Highway Patrol Lt. Mike Soubirous combined to receive enough votes to top the incumbent, with Jeffries edging out Soubirous by a small margin to become the challenger in the general election.

Campaign filings showed both Buster and Jeffries spent six-figure amounts on their races, though Buster raised 60 percent more in political contributions.

Some of the funds were spent on a flurry of anti-Jeffries mailers distributed in the last two weeks. Buster has accused his opponent of being cozy with public employee unions and voting in favor of dozens of ”job killer” bills.

The Jeffries camp released answers to virtually all of the accusations, detailing what the Assemblyman characterizes as his record of fiscal prudence and, in one case, asking whether Buster is ”intentionally lying to voters, or is simply too incompetent to understand the legislative process in California?”

Jeffries received endorsements from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and the California Small Business Administration. The challenger said recently that internal polling shows he’s leading Buster among likely voters.

Buster’s website underscored a record of trying to improve the local economy and save money by backing public employee pension reform, vigorously supporting the UC Riverside School of Medicine and working on the transportation commission to ”push through … many much needed transportation projects to increase lanes, widen bridges and improve interchanges throughout Riverside County.”

Jeffries criticized Buster’s six-figure pension and vowed that if elected, he would work to convert all the supervisors’ retirement plans to self- funded 401(k)s. The outgoing state lawmaker, who owns a property management firm, also blasted the incumbent for supporting some aspects of Gov. Jerry Brown’s 2011 ”realignment” initiative that resulted in many state responsibilities being shifted onto counties — without assurances for long-term funding.

Jeffries said last month that one of the common complaints he heard while campaigning is a lack of responsiveness from Buster’s office.

”Some constituents would just like to get a call back,” he said.

According to the Harvard-educated Buster, he has been ”pro-active” in helping county residents, particularly seniors and veterans, citing his support for health fairs and symposiums that highlight access to county services, as well as job-training programs that aid former military personnel transition to civilian life.